Phil came to diving from a background of speleology (Dry caving) that lead him into various disciplines such as rope work, climbing and eventually diving.
Learning to dive with Steve Axtell, a highly regarded PADI Course Director, Phil soon found a passion in diving to match his love of caving and followed the PADI system with Steve up to passing his IE in February 1991 and then working for Steve's company 'Diving Leisure' for 8 years as a full time PADI Instructor for 8 years working his way up to Master Instructor.

During his time as a full time recreational Instructor Phil started to broaden his own skill set with Mixed gas, Technical, Cave and rebreather training through IANTD with Kevin Gurr. This training aimed at giving the skills needed to explore caves taking him back to his caving roots also developed a love of wreck diving. At this time Phil qualified as a diving member of the British Cave Diving Group (CDG).

Phil was part of the first UK deep wreck team 'DEEP' with fellow members including Kevin Gurr, Dave Thompson and Allan Yeend. The team completed many first dives and positive identifications on wrecks in the English channel in the 50-80 metre range in the mid 1990's.
Phil moved away from recreational Instruction to full time Technical Instruction through IANTD and began working for Kevin Gurr at Phoenix Oceaneering in 2000.
Through working with Kevin Gurr at Phoenix Phil was able to be a team diver on many projects including TV documentaries for the BBC on the M1 submarine and for Chanel 4 on the Battle of Jutland and Historic shipwreck projects in the Gulf of Mexico and Guam.
During his years with Phoenix Phil continued to run his own projects in caves mainly with his long term Cave 'buddy' Gavin Newman, an Emmy winning cameraman, such as the 'Hidden River' project in Mallorca and the BBC Documentary covered project 'The Road to Certain Death' in northern Spain.

Through his own company Phil Short Technical Phil now works with VR Technology Ltd as a test and development diver on the Ouroboros, Sentinel and Explorer rebreathers and is a rebreather Technical support consultant for the rebreather side of the company.

Phil was appointed as Training Director of IANTD UK by Tom Mount and now specialises in training Instructors and Instructor Trainers and scientific, government and media teams.
Phil has trained divers from groups including BBC, HSE, US National Parks Service, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, The UK Police Strathclyde Underwater Search unit and the National Museum of China Archeological department.

Phils current projects include a Deep Wreck research project with Paul Toomer in Malta, a Deep Wreck research project in Israel, A Cave diving project with Kevin Gurr and Jill Heinerth in the Sahara (North Africa) and an ongoing Cave project with the British Cave Diving Group in Greece.